Rita Blanco

Acting

Rita Blanco

Born 1963-01-11 · Algés, Oeiras, Portugal

Estreia-se como actriz na peça Mariana Espera Casamento, de Jean-Paul Wenzel, sob a direcção de Luís Miguel Cintra, em 1983. Conclui o Curso de Formação de Actores do Conservatório Nacional, em 1985. Ainda no Teatro da Cornucópia representou Perversões de David Mamet, dirigida por Miguel Guilherme e José Pedro Gomes; Antes que a Noite Venha de Eduarda Dionísio, com Adriano Luz; Sangue no Pescoço do Gato de Fassbinder, com Luís Miguel Cintra. Em 1989 participou em Como é Diferente o Amor em Portugal, adaptação da obra de Júlio Dantas, dirigida por Fernando Gomes. Nunca Nada de Ninguém de Luísa Costa Gomes, encenado por Ana Tamen valeu-lhe a nomeação para o Prémio Garrett para a Melhor Interpretação Feminina (1991). Em 1997 participou em Peter Pan de James Barrie, encenado por António Pires no São Luiz. No cinema foi dirigida por João Botelho (1994 - Três Palmeiras; 1999 Tráfico; 2003 - A Mulher Que Acreditava Ser a Presidente dos EUA; 2005 - O Fatalista), João Mário Grilo (1998 - Longe da Vista; 2002 - A Falha; 2000 - 451 Forte), José Nascimento (2000 - Tarde Demais), Teresa Villaverde (1998 - Os Mutantes), Manoel de Oliveira (1998 - Inquietude), João César Monteiro (1992 - O Último Mergulho) ou Jorge Silva Melo (1987 - Agosto; 1985 - Ninguém duas Vezes). Na televisão, apareceu em A Mala de Cartão (1988) série que contava com a participação de Irene Papas. Trabalhou junto do humorista Herman José, em Casino Royal (1989), Crime na Pensão Estrelinha (1990) e Serafim Saudade - o regresso do Herói (2001). Participou ainda em Sai da Minha1996, Médico de Família (1998/2000), A Minha Sogra é uma Bruxa (2003), na telenovela Tempo de Viver (2006) de Rui Vilhena (a sua estreia na TVI e em telenovelas) Conta-me como Foi (2007-2009). Apresentou com Henrique Mendes o concurso Caça ao Tesouro (1994). Em 2011 após 2 anos de ausência, regressa à televisão em grande dose trabalhando nos 3 canais Portugueses generalistas: primeiro na sitcom da SIC A Família Mata, depois no telefilme da TVI O Profeta e por fim na 2ª temporada da Série da RTP Maternidades. Salienta a sua colaboração com o encenador e cineasta João Canijo. Com ele trabalhou no teatro (1988 - Crimes do Coração de Beth Henley; 1987 - Jogos de Praia de Whitehead; 1994 - Confissões ao Luar de Eugene O'Neill; 2002 - Sete Vidas de Rosa Lobato de Faria), no cinema (1988 - Três Menos Eu (Festival Les Stars De Demain); 1990 - Filha da Mãe; 2001 - Ganhar a Vida; 2004 - Noite Escura) e na televisão (1990 - Alentejo sem Lei; 1996 - Sai da Minha Vida). Premiada em 2002 e 2012 com o Globo de Ouro na categoria de Melhor Actriz de Cinema, com Ganhar a Vida e Sangue do meu Sangue de João Canijo. Foi homenageada no Festival de Santa Maria da Feira em 2004. Em 2012, foi considerada na Gala SPAUTORES, a melhor actriz de cinema, devido à sua interpretação no filme Sangue do meu Sangue

Acting credits

Amour poster
7.8

Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.

Amour

2012

Hard Times poster
7.3

A film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel "Hard Times" set in a Portuguese industrial town of the 1980s.

Hard Times

1988

Lovely Child poster
7.1

Maria is a sweet child. She hasn’t father and doesn’t like her mother. She has a boyfriend, A bandit who would like to change his class.

Lovely Child

1990

Amelia’s Children poster
6.0

When Edward’s search for his biological family leads him and his girlfriend Ryley to a magnificent villa high in the mountains of Northern Portugal, he is full of excitement at meeting his long-lost mother and twin brother. Finally, he will discover who he is and where he comes from. But nothing is as it seems, and Edward will soon learn that he is linked to them by a monstrous secret.

Amelia’s Children

2024

Vá Cavar Batatas poster
NR

After years living in Lisbon, Castro's family makes the decision to move to the countryside.

Vá Cavar Batatas

2012

Bad Living poster
4.8

In a family-run hotel near the northern coast of Portugal, several women from the same family, spanning different generations, live together. Their relationship, poisoned by bitterness, struggles to survive in the decaying hotel. The unexpected arrival of a granddaughter in this claustrophobic space provokes turmoil and rekindles latent hatreds and accumulated resentments.

Bad Living

2023

No One Twice poster
6.5

Director Jorge Silva Melo has developed a viable, though highly intellectual mystery story about the world of art and culture and murder in this somewhat theatrical presentation. When German artist Bernd Hoffmann (Michael König) arrives in Lisbon to oversee the installation of his paintings in a joint exhibition with another Berlin artist, Hanna Brauer (Charlotte Schwab), Hanna never shows up. Hoffmann is puzzled because he is certain he saw a video sequence with Hanna at the exhibition, and he begins to look for her. Another Lisbon cultural center, a theater, is also having problems that may or may not be related -- and the mystery deepens when Hanna is found dead, either by her own hand, or murdered.

No One Twice

1985

In the Darkness of the Night poster
6.0

A disturbing film about the Portuguese underworld of prostitution.

In the Darkness of the Night

2004

The Gilded Cage poster
6.7

In the beautiful area of ​​Paris, Maria and José Ribeiro lived for almost thirty years on the ground floor of a Haussmann building, in their dear little lodge.

The Gilded Cage

2013

Santo António - O Casamenteiro de Lisboa poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Santo António - O Casamenteiro de Lisboa

2026

As Meninas Exemplares poster
NR

The misfortunes of Sofia, the exemplary Madalena and Camila, the troubled vacations of girls and boys, a few years later leading to the resolution of some mysteries, form the perfect trilogy by the Countess of Ségur on education, social, religious, and political power. Desire and its oppression, violence and punishment, in short, the terrible loss combined with inevitable growth. Both adults and children will understand that precepts, rules, and prayers can tear nerves and blood apart.

As Meninas Exemplares

2025

Auto da Casa poster
NR

A theatre having national as part of its name, at the top of a square, reflecting a country’s history. But which one? This is a voyage through the various narratives about D. Maria II National Theatre, forged through the intentions of the several regimes that intended to convey their own ideologies within the theatre’s mission. This is also the story of those who fought against it, opposed the institution and became part of it. How can one become heir of these stories, even if never having set foot inside.

Auto da Casa

2026

Carga poster
6.1

A lorry, a road and an unpredictable destiny, all intersecting in a human trafficking network. Caught up in this web, Viktoriya has only one chance: fight to survive.

Carga

2018

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Encenação

Profjam #000000 poster
NR

ProfJam wanted to show the contrast for his debut album and do it using the big screen

Profjam #000000

2020

The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family poster
5.8

The tragedy and comedy in Carlos' life begins, grows and ends like the tragedy and comedy of Portugal. In the company of his close friend, João da Ega, allegedly a brilliant writer, Carlos, with his idle existence as an aristocratic doctor, spends his time to enjoying friends and lovers. Until he falls in love. She is a new character in this revolutionary novel. It's a vertiginous passion that goes beyond that past gloominess to reach a new and darker abyss, incest.

The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family

2014

After Dance – A Concert Film poster
6.0

A large, time-worn house sits on a towering, untouchable pedestal. Ressaca Bailada – Filme Concerto follows individuals as they navigate their relationship with freedom, unity, and isolation within this setting. Celebrating tradition while confronting and questioning it, all against a backdrop of music that shapes the journey.

After Dance – A Concert Film

2024

Living Bad poster
5.6

A hotel by the northern shore of Portugal welcomes its guests over the weekend. A man is torn between being present for his wife and the space that his mother takes up between the two of them. A mother encourages her daughter’s marriage to enable her own love affair with her son-in-law. Another mother lives through her daughter, preventing her from making her own decisions. Three families at the end of their cycles of acceptance.

Living Bad

2023

Traffic poster
5.7

Young Jesus is taken on a vacation by his parents (Rita Blanco, Adriano Luz) to a deserted beach resort. They accidentally fall into overnight wealth after Jesus digs in the sand, uncovering a large drug stash. Others characters intersecting here include an alcoholic actress, a philandering banker, a general trafficking in arms, priests who close their church and head north as hitchhikers, politicians who watch an all-girl production of Julius Caesar, and beggars who recite a children's story in a huge heap of trash.

Traffic

1998

Circle of Passions poster
4.0

An aristocratic Sicilian family living in the 1950s. Count Villafratti has sex one night with his nymphomaniac daughter because he thinks she is his wife.

Circle of Passions

1983

In Search of the Equator poster
9.0

A film about two young women, trying to decide how to go on with their lives and loves: Marie just dumped her boyfriend, who's married and can see her just secretly twice a week. At this point Pipa invites her to join her on a visit at her home at the coast of Portugal. Only when they are arrived there, Marie learns that Pipa has come to marry Manuel, and that she too is unsure if she'll be happy with her decision.

In Search of the Equator

1989

Get a Life poster
7.3

During one winter night, a Portuguese teenager, Alvaro, loses his life in a fight between a youth gang and the cops in a suburb of Paris. Cidalia, a 36 year old cleaning woman, his mother, decides to defy the code of silence of the Portuguese community and tries to find the truth. She losses her friends, her job and her family but gains a life.

Get a Life

2001

Blood of My Blood poster
7.1

A regular family living in the outskirts of Lisbon sees the serenity of their lives shaken beyond any remedy within a week.

Blood of My Blood

2011

A Mulher que Acreditava Ser Presidente dos EUA poster
5.5

Alexandra Lencastre plays a woman who believes she is President of the U.S.A.

A Mulher que Acreditava Ser Presidente dos EUA

2003

Behind the camera